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Piskorowski Receives Dentist Citizen Award

Dr. Bill Piskorowski

Ann Arbor, MI — May 5, 2014 — Dr. Bill Piskorowski, assistant dean for Community-Based Dental Education at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry, has received the Michigan Dental Association’s Emmett C. Bolden Dentist Citizen of the Year Award for his service to the community and state.

In nominating Piskorowski, Dr. Howard Hamerink, adjunct clinical associate professor and academic program manager of Community-Based Dental Education, noted Piskorowski’s “ingenuity and business acumen in the development of the sustainable and widely successfully community outreach program.”

Since Piskorowski was named director of the Community-Based Dental Education program in 2006, the number of outreach locations where U-M dental students provide oral health care has increased from five to 30. The amount of time they spend in communities providing care is now eight weeks, up from two weeks when outreach expanded to become a year-round part of the School’s curriculum in 2000 instead of a summer only program.

Working in communities across Michigan, U-M dental students have seen more than 113,300 patients and have performed more than 225,400 procedures, all under the supervision of oral health care providers at community clinics, hospitals, veteran clinics, correctional facilities and private practice through the 2012-2013 academic year. Many dental students have said their outreach experiences were the highlight of their dental education since they were living in communities where they provided care and treated patients they normally did not see in dental school clinics.

After receiving the award presented at the start of the Michigan Dental Association’s House of Delegates meeting, Piskorwoski thanked the more than 100 dentists who have worked with U-M dental students. “It has been an honor and a pleasure to work with a great group of champions across our state,” he said.

The award is named for Dr. Emmett Bolden, a black Grand Rapids dentist, who was instrumental in helping to abolish Michigan’s “Jim Crow” laws in the 1920s.